Several former Minuteman leaders, angry over the organization's failure to account for hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of dollars in donations, have formed their own border-vigil operation.

The Patriots' Border Alliance, led by Minuteman Civil Defense Corps leaders fired in May for raising questions about the group's finances, says it will carry on the mission of fighting illegal entry into the U.S. with volunteers who have "chosen to stand down" from MCDC.

In a letter to Minuteman volunteers, former MCDC Deputy Executive Director Bob Wright said none of those terminated by MCDC President Chris Simcox "ever had their dedication questioned or brought even a hint of disgrace or scandal" to the organization.

The Minuteman leaders, including Mr. Wright, were fired after asking for a meeting with Mr. Simcox to discuss a lack of financial accountability. The purge was ordered by Mr. Simcox, who came under criticism last year over similar questions involving how much money MCDC had raised and where it had gone.

Included in the purge were several top lieutenants, most of whom had been with the organization since its April 2005 founding. Those fired in addition to Mr. Wright were Bill Irwin, national operations officer; Greg Thompson, national training coordinator; Stacey O'Connell, a key organizer and Arizona state chapter director; and more than a dozen other Minuteman leaders.

Well my goodness, they certainly have a lot of officers and titles and secret handshakes and such and such. And to be honest, the "Patriots' Border Alliance" doesn't quite have the headline-friendly snap and brevity of the Minutemen or say, the MexiKlan™, which was first runner-up. But never mind that, where exactly is the money going?

Simcox has declined to be interviewed by The Washington Times, but in a posting on his Web page, he called the accusations "unfounded." He also said MCDC "never failed to answer anyone's questions" about finances, although he refused to deliver on promises he made to The Times in 2005 and 2006 on three occasions to disclose MCDC financial records.

In November, in its only Internal Revenue Service filing, MCDC said it spent $450,000 in 2005 for volunteers to patrol the U.S.-Mexican border, about $31,000 more than it collected in donations and registration fees.

So he spent $450,000 on volunteers, and who among us hasn't spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on free stuff.

However, the figure was significantly less than the $1.6 million Mr. Simcox told The Times last July that the group had collected in donations since its creation. Since then, Mr. Simcox has created separate fundraising organizations, the Minuteman Border Fence and the Minuteman Political Action Committee, but has not given Minuteman members or the public a full accounting of how much money has been collected or on what it has been spent.

It's hard to fault Simcox for indulging in that most American of enterprises: collecting money from ardent believers and followers who share a vision of a better future free of strife, and then using that money to live large. But most people like Simcox just become evangelists. Hey, if the people weren't sheep, you wouldn't need the Mexicans to shear them...